There has been a dramatic increase in the need for transportation of notebook computers with the spread of notebook computers. A case has been seen recently where a request for repair, memory extension or the like of a notebook computer from a user is received by a maker's repair center only with mail service or home delivery service rather than direct carrying in by a user.
In this case, the notebook computer sent from the user to the maker and repaired or maintained is also sent back from the maker to the user with the mail service or home delivery service. Packing of the notebook computer in transportation with the mail service or home delivery service is required to sufficiently protect the notebook computer from impacts.
In the transportation of the notebook computer, although it is conventionally possible for the maker in the transportation to the user to take a sufficient protection measure necessary for the packing or to standardize the packaging to a certain quality, it is not always easy for the user having no packing material to take the sufficient protection measure necessary for the packing unless an exclusive packing implement for notebook computer transportation is provided.
A packaging structure constituted by a combination of a baseboard and a flexible film is disclosed as a packing implement for goods transportation in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,695. In the packaging structure, the flexible films which serve as a holding sheet 22 are stacked on a board surface of a rectangular baseboard 21 as shown in FIG. 11, and both edges of the holding sheet 22 are adhered to both ends of the baseboard. An article M to be housed is placed between the baseboard 21 and the holding sheet 22 as shown in FIG. 12, both side edge parts 24 of the baseboard 21, to which the holding sheet 22 is adhered, are folded back in a direction opposite a mounting surface of the article M along lines for bend 23 marked on the board surface of the baseboard 21 of both the sides of the article as shown in FIG. 13, and further both end parts 25 of the board surface of the baseboard 21 are respectively erected upward and the packaging structure is housed in an outer casing 26 for transportation as shown in FIG. 14.
In the packaging structure as shown in FIG. 11, both side edges of the baseboard 21 are folded back to the back side so that the flexible film employed as the holding sheet 22 is tensed, and then the article M can be stably supported in the outer casing 26 by being press-fitted to the flexible film and fixed to the board surface of the baseboard, however, as clearly shown in FIG. 14, the article M is simply mounted on an upper surface of the baseboard 21 that fold-back edges of both the side edge parts 24 are folded on a lower surface of the baseboard 21, and therefore, there remains a problem that impact force is directly applied to the article M through the baseboard 21 from the bottom of the outer casing 26 and which causes a high risk of damage to the article when the outer casing 26 in which the article is housed is erroneously dropped during transportation or other handling.
However, regarding the above problem, a proposal has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,695 that folding end portions 27 are provided in the baseboard 21 as shown in FIG. 15 and erected at both sides of the article mounting surface of the baseboard 21 to form a buffer space below the article mounting surface as shown in FIG. 16. However, there arise problems that not only the pasteboard itself of the baseboard 21 becomes larger but also it takes a long time for assembly work by special parts as the folding end portions 27 provided in the baseboard 21.
Additionally, since the protection measure for the article M from an impact such as a drop wholly depends on only the tightening force of the press of the holding sheet 22, the article reaches the side edge or end edge of the baseboard 21 while slipping on the board surface of the baseboard 21 against the tightening force of the holding sheet 22 when an article such as a notebook computer, which is relatively thin and heavy, is housed in the packaging structure. Thus, there remains a risk that the impact applied to the outer casing is directly applied to the article M which is accommodated in an outer casing. In order to solve such problems, the inventors have previously proposed packing implements for goods transportation (1), (2) (U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2006/0213803 A1) for which no specific part is required to be applied, and a buffer space can be naturally formed below the baseboard by only a regular bend of a part of the baseboard to which a holding sheet is attached.
For the packing implement (1), as shown in FIG. 17, in short, an article 31 is placed between a baseboard 36 and a holding sheet 37, leg parts 39 of both falling parts 41 are squarely bent downward from end edges of the baseboard 36, then bottom parts 40 are horizontally bent, and rising parts 42 are folded back upward from both side edges of the baseboard 36 and assembled in a fixed form. As a result, both the falling parts 41 are held at a fixed position, a buffer space having a height corresponding to the leg part 39 is naturally formed between the baseboard 36 and the bottom part 40, and triangle parts 38 of both the ends of the leg part 39 continued to the rising parts 42 are projected to the sides so that buffer spaces are also formed at the sides of the packing implement.
In the packing implement (1), the rising parts 42 are formed by bending a flat board, and as an application thereof the packing implement (2) has been proposed in which casing bodies 49 are formed as shown in FIG. 18 at the rising parts 42, respectively. However, it has been discovered that in the case of the packing implement (1), points of the triangle parts 38 of both the ends of the leg part 39 continued to the rising parts 42 are sharply pointed as shown in FIG. 19(a), and particularly in the packing implement (2) as an application thereof where casing bodies 49 are formed at the rising parts 42, respectively, tips of the triangle parts 38 are projected to the sides to sharply thrust the inner walls of an outer casing 43 as shown in FIG. 19(b), and thus a problem that holes are opened in the outer casing occurs.
The rising parts 42 and the falling parts 41 are parts formed by dividing along lines for bend marked on the baseboard 36, and a description has been given of an example of providing a circular opening at a junction point of both lines for bend to form the leg part 39 for the purpose of facilitating bend of the rising part, however, in an actual case where the circular opening is provided, the falling parts 41 and the rising parts 42 may be bent deviating from appointed lines for bend when being bent along lines for bend marked on the baseboard for the first time.    Patent Document 1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,695    Patent Document 2 U.S. Patent. Publication No. US 2006/0213803 A1